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Herding cats: Now there's a skill politicians could use today. Lyndon Baines Johnson, our folksy dictator-president of the '60s, had it by the ton, alternately muscling and charming his victim-cohorts into obedience, passing the legislation he wanted, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Dance and politics sometimes make for a clumsy mix, but the Seldoms' Carrie Hanson has proved a discerning political observer, addressing environmental issues in "Monument" (2008), the economy in "Stupormarket" (2011) and our tangled environmental debates in "Exit Disclaimer" (2012). With the concise yet massive "Power Goes," through March 29 at the...

Related "Lyndon B. Johnson" Articles

Herding cats: Now there's a skill politicians could use today. Lyndon Baines Johnson, our folksy dictator-president of the '60s, had it by the ton, alternately muscling and charming his victim-cohorts into obedience, passing the legislation he wanted,...

Fifty years ago, on March 15, 1965, Lyndon B. Johnson gave one of the most memorable speeches by a U.S. president, calling on Congress to enact a voting rights bill by borrowing the cry of the civil rights movement: "We shall overcome."
The...

A march commemorating the historic "Bloody Sunday" demonstration was set to begin Monday afternoon after several speakers at the 50th anniversary commemoration pushed visitors to fight to restore the Voting Rights Act.
As thousands marched...

Thousands of people crowded an Alabama bridge on Sunday, many jammed shoulder to shoulder, many unable to move, to commemorate a bloody confrontation 50 years ago between police and peaceful protesters that helped bring about the 1965 Voting Rights...

At 91, Betty Ryan doesn't glamorize her decision to travel in 1965 to Selma, Ala., answering Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s call for support at a pivotal moment in the Civil Rights movement.
"It just seemed like the right thing to do, the right...

Recently I picked up a national sports magazine that predicted the Cubs — yes, the doormat Cubs — would win their division in 2015.
My loyalty to the Cubs is inbred in my soul. I’m an old guy; I’ll turn 78 in April. I grew up on Ashland Avenue,...

Gary Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson knows precisely how many buildings are vacant in her city: 6,902, or about 21 percent.
She knows how many buildings are "blighted" and in visible need of repair. That's 12,394, or 37 percent.
She can show you...

During his 35-year tenure as University of Notre Dame president, the Rev. Theodore Hesburgh carried through on bold ideas that supporters say reshaped a college known mostly for its football team into a prominent academic institution.
The Rev. Hesburgh...

In the books section of the Feb. 21 Wall Street Journal, there is a quote attributed to former President Lyndon B. Johnson: “If one morning I walked on top of the water across the Potomac River, the headline that afternoon would read ‘President Can’t...

“Birdman” won big Sunday at the Oscars, in a triumph of highly noticeable, kinetic filmmaking over the light-fingered “invisible” technique of its primary competition, “Boyhood.”
“Birdman” contained little, if anything, to offend anyone. No serious...

Fifty-one years ago, President Lyndon B. Johnson launched the War on Poverty. Since then, taxpayers have spent more than $22 trillion fighting Johnson’s war, three times the cost of all military wars in U.S. history. Last year, taxpayers spent more than...

With all due respect to the Barack Obama presidential library sweepstakes, there's one White House souvenir Chicago absolutely needs.
We need to land Air Force One.
We're at least owed that. The Air Force looks to retire its current fleet of...

Everyone knows Americans love a good fight. But on this one subject, I wish we could put down our fists for a moment and listen to what the other side has to say. That's the topic of race.
Discussions about race remind me of a boxing match. Opponents...

The Jan. 15 announcement of the 2015 Academy Award nominations was greeted with widespread dismay at the omission of Ava DuVernay, the director of "Selma," and David Oyelowo, the movie's star. Once people analyzed and totaled up the nominations,...

There are iconic figures where only their first name is needed. Las Vegas has Celine. Cleveland has LeBron. Chicago has Rahm. Western Springs has Wally.
The longtime owner of Wally's Garage, Wally Kloog is a renaissance man. Go into his auto repair...

Greetings, and welcome to the Super Bowl column I'm constitutionally obligated to write because I'm a journalist and the Super Bowl is Sunday and that's all we're allowed to write about.
(This requirement was added to the First Amendment in 1968,...

When President Lyndon Johnson declared February as American Heart Month 51 years ago, cardiovascular disease was responsible for more than half of all deaths in the country. With improved medical technology and more knowledge of risk factors, the death...

Probably the single most infuriating and limiting thing about the American theater is its lack of immediacy when it comes to political and social commentary, mostly due to the absurd rigmarole and developmental time lags between someone writing a play and...